Proceedings of a Conference held in London, 15-17 september 1999, organized by The Association for Low Countries Studies, University College London, Centre for Dutch and Flemish Culture, The British Library, Dutch and Flemish section, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. Twenty-five papers by experts in their particular period or area were selected for publication. Covering almost five centuries, they represent a wholly modern approach to the history of the book and publishing in a European context, highlighting for the first time the crucial role of the Low Countries in transmitting the intellectual heritage of an area well beyond their own - changing - borders.